Quotes About Artistry

You must be an artist and a citizen of the world. You must speak to this stuff that's happening. You must do what you can to shine a light on it, help people through it.

Sana Takeda is a genius. It's really that simple. Her vision and sense of story and beauty is beyond compare. I loved working with her on 'X-23.' I knew, though, that she could do much more beyond the constraints of a traditional superhero story.

I was working with a great actress - a superior artist in every way - and she really liked Celine Dion. I tried very hard, but I couldn't understand it. I just can't listen to Celine Dion! So I guess music is a deal breaker.

I think miniatures are still superior to a lot of computer graphics.

As long as I don't look down upon any characters, that's fine. The moment I do that - the moment I think I'm superior or that others are inferior - I'm finished as an artist and as a human being.

If you've got a guitar and a lot of soul, just bang something out and mean it. You're the superstar.

I love 'Jesus Christ Superstar.'

I speak for myself... I am here to tell stories. I'm here to be an actor and not a superstar. If, in the process, that ends up happening, great. But that's not my endgoal.

I don't have to work with superstars - I want to work with cool artists that make super music.

You'll almost encounter a superstition amongst musicians, people sort of go through strange rituals, what they need to do to write a song.

We go in and I do my thing, and then we supplement it with whatever we want.

As an artist, I've always felt most comfortable outside of the art supply store. So domestic materials are the ones that most help inform what I'm trying to talk about and our familiarity as a whole - kind of the collective us, I guess.

You're supported by everything in New York if you want to be a performing artist. You come here, you can change your name. You leave home, you come here, you're severed from family obligations - the old identity drops away as soon as you come to New York because you're coming to New York, if you're an artist, to be someone else.

A lot of my fans and supporters have been asking for an album.

I'm not going to go to a producer that's going to take me in a studio and charge me my whole budget and give me a fake head nod. I'm just trying to make good music. I appreciate everybody that's supporting me.

Every show I play, I try and make it unique. I don't pre-plan my sets and always try and drop new music from my label or artists I am supporting. Equally, I spend countless hours making edits and adding my own touch to the music I want to play.

When I hear myself singing, I hear Iggy Pop and Jimi Hendrix. There's a conversational thing going on. I suppose it depends on which The Pretenders song you're listening to.

I suppose when you do it correctly, a good introduction and a good outro makes the song feel like it's coming out of something and then evolving into something.

I suppose, in a way, one could say I may be less interested in my career than the audience is. Not to mean that I'm disinterested in my career, but I don't see it in terms of one stepping stone or, 'Now I'm going to go into my blue phase,' or what have you.

When once the itch of literature comes over a man, nothing can cure it but the scratching of a pen. But if you have not a pen, I suppose you must scratch any way you can.

So I suppose that means we can actually play the instruments.

I think it takes a lot of trickery to keep up with the media and its perception of you. I don't know if I have it in me most of the time to care. The music is made first, and the interviews or photos to keep it alive come later as a necessary evil, I suppose.

Every single time I step into the studio, I say, 'Can I still do this? Do I still have it? Have I ever had it?' I suppose there's a good amount of self-loathing that goes into any form of artisanship.

My main thing is just to keep writing. I've been doing some songwriting that's for my own record, I suppose.